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London Sevens: Day One Wrap

A controversial victory for England over New Zealand finished an off an entertaining day of action on Saturday at the London Sevens.

A controversial victory for England over New Zealand finished an off an entertaining day of action on Saturday at the London Sevens.

England, France, Australia, Kenya, South Africa, New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji all qualified for the last eight on Sunday.

England, South Africa, Australia and Samoa are all unbeaten so far.

England defeated the All Blacks 15-12 thanks to a drop goal penalty from captain Tom Mitchell to progress.

Simon Amor's side earlier came from 5-0 behind against Wales to record an opening 14-5 victory thanks to tries from James Rodwell and Mitchell before Dan Norton scored twice in their 31-5 win over Argentina.

They will face France in the quarter-finals as they look to win a home title for the first time since 1999 after Les Bleus beat Scotland 14-10 and Portugal 59-14 to progress with Virimi Vakatawa, Julien Candelon and Julien Saubade all scoring two tries in the latter.

Ben Lam scored a hat-trick as New Zealand won their opening match against Argentina before 17 points from Gillies Kaka helped them to a 49-0 win over Wales while Tomasi Cama became only the second player in history, after Ben Gollings, to score 2000 points on the World Series and they will play the Blitzbokke in the quarter finals.

Spain's failure to make the Cup quarter finals in London meant they were relegated as a core side for next season's Series, and they will play USA in the Bowl quarter finals on day two.

The side that will replace them next year, Japan, lost all three of their matches on day one, including a 34-14 defeat to Spain, and they will face Canada.